Time Team Day 14 - Anarchy in the UK

Good morning!  Good afternoon!  Good evening!  Depending on when you are reading this, I hope that this day finds you well.  I am continuing to work on the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team and am working on an episode from Season 16.  Today the Time Team is looking at a castle that may have come from a little-known period of English history known as the Anarchy.  The run time for this episode is 48:46 and is called Anarchy in the UK.

A waterside field is beside the oldest bridge the River Thames in Oxfordshire.  For centuries people have been drawn to this area.  It was the perfect position for an assault as evidenced by some earthworks on the site.  A pair of local archeologists have geophysics the site and invited the Time Team to dig it.  The Time Team is looking to discover the remains of a castle that was buried under the grass.  Could this be the castle of Queen Matilda?

Radcott would be the last place a castle would be.  However, it was a strategic point in English History.  A local pair of archeologists have geophysics the site and may have discovered a castle.  Could this belong to the English Civil War?  Or was this castle from the older period?  Did it come from World War II?  Did this castle belong to Queen Matilda?  These local archaeologists did a dig and found the remains of a wall, however, one wall does not make a castle.

Mick goes over the geophysics results too, and feels like the Time Team is spoiled for choice when it comes to putting in a trench.  Phil puts in the first trench over a feature that could have been a Norman tower.  The results also show other strange features in the ground that may have been part of a Norman Castle.  John Gater and his geophysics team do more geophysics on the site.

As trench one goes in, Phil makes the first find a piece of pottery.  However, this piece of pottery could come from the Roman period.  Phil quips that this was a medieval program.  More and more pottery shards continue to come up in this trench.  In the meantime, Tony learns more about Radcott and learns about Stephen and Matilda.  They would have been two grandchildren of William the Conqueror.  They would have fought for the throne of England.  Radcott would have been caught in a vicious civil war.  Perhaps Matilda would have built a castle at this site.

Phil continues to discover more and more pottery in his trench.  As the dig continues Phil may have hit a castle wall.  As Phil continues to scrape, it is clear that there is a wall in the first trench and it’s only midday.  Trench two goes in over what Mick concludes is the Gatehouse.  Stewart has his input as to where to put in this trench.  Trench two goes in over this gatehouse feature.  However, one thing puzzles Tony, if this is a castle, why does it now show up in the local records?  Mick and Tony talk about why it did not show up in the records.  Radcott was the site of a battle during the English Civil War, so over the years this history may have been confused with its Norman history.

Phil’s trench continues to bring up the finds.  There have been many pottery finds in three hours.  Many of the pottery finds have come from the 12th Century.  There have also been big chunks of Roman pottery that have been discovered.  There was a chunk of a Roman heating system was discovered.  This makes the Time Team reevaluate the geophysics.  Perhaps this was part of a Roman villa at one time.  There was set a of Roman remains that The Time Team initially thought was part of a Chapel, but was this part of a Roman villa instead?  Trench three goes in over this feature.  What will the Time Team find in this trench?  Was this castle part of the Anarchy?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

This was a rather neat episode about the Anarchy and an unknown castle.  Tony and Mick were both funny during this episode.  I would show this episode to a history class.